Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2018) 7(11): 2364-2368 2364 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2018.711.267 A Study on Production Constraints of Rice Cultivation in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh and Suggestions to Overcome Them B. Affia Phenica*, T. Lakshmi, S.V. Prasad and Y. Reddi Ramu Department of Agricultural Extension, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati-517502, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Indian agriculture has undergone many noteworthy changes from a condition of begging bowl to self-sufficiency in the production of food grains. The first significant change is the attitude of the farmer towards farming. He considers it not merely as a way of life but also a kind of business. The second significant change is the interest of farmers in the adoption of new technology. The projections indicate that Indian population will be around two billion by 2050. Rising population and per capita income are obviously pushing up the food demand which needs to be met through enhanced productivity per unit area. In Andhra Pradesh area under rice mostly depends on the monsoon pattern and availability of water in reservoirs. The cultivable area under rice has alarmingly gone down to 5.67 lakh ha from 8 lakh ha (2017). There is no scope for increasing area under rice as rice area is replaced by some profitable dry crops due to insufficient water. The reasons for shrinking of paddy lands in the district are due to numerous constraints that are present in this aspect. Some of the farm level rice production constraints include stagnating yield, declining profit, high cost of labour, unavailability of the labour, unavailability of quality seed in time, marketing problems which in turn lead to distress sale, economic factors like price fluctuation and existing gap between rice grain and parboiled rice are adversely affecting rice International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 7 Number 11 (2018) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study was conducted in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, to study the production constraints faced by rice farmers and various suggestions given by them to overcome the constraints. The major agro ecological, technical, socio-economical and marketing constraints perceived by farmers were high temperature during crop growth, scarcity of labour during peak periods, diversion of farmers from rice cultivation to irrigated dry crops and involvement of middlemen respectively. Important suggestions as given by the farmers were fetching better market price/provision of Minimum Support Price (MSP) by the government (93.33%) was ranked first followed by prioritization of agricultural activities in MGNREGA scheme, development of pest and disease resistant varieties and development of suitable implements and equipments for all operations. Keywords Production constraints, Rice farmers, Suggestions Accepted: 18 October 2018 Available Online: 10 November 2018 Article Info